An Angel With A Broken Wing
by You-Are-A-Fridge-With-Wingss
Summary: Max and the flock have arrived in England. There they meet a girl named Edie, who's also got wings. As the flock gets settled, so do some of Iggy's feelings. But will they work out? Iggy x OC fluff!  R&R, please :  T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- okay, so this is my first fanfiction, and im sorry if there's no paragraph breaks coz I've done it wrong. Big O/C part in this, may become Iggy-O/C later unless you guys don't like her. Review for virtual cupcakes! And to say if you hate the o/c. please? Oh, btw, sorry if its all in British-English. I tried to put it in American-english, but you may find someone saying scone instead of biscuit. Not that I'm planning to put any scones in it. Its England, they might eat some. Who knows? I'm not too sure where I'm going with this.**

**Disclaimer- if I look like James Patterson, I' m officially sueing Herbal Essences for making shampoo that makes your hair fall out.**

An Angel With A Broken Wing, Chapter 1

Iggy POV

"Max, remind me again why we are going to England." I muttered. It being 1,800 feet, kinda windy, and loud from the jet near us of course she heard. Unlike the last night when I asked what she did on her daily flights with Fang?

"We are going to England because my mom says it's a good idea. She thinks we should get away from this whole saving the world thing for a while. Maybe go to a normal school." Max replied sharply, and I heard a note of distaste creep into her voice at the word school.

I sighed just audibly to me, and veered off just far enough to be able to still follow the sound of the plane. I reached out my hand slightly to feel the colours of the sunrise on my hand. Light yellow merging to sharp, cold blue. I smiled, and closed my sightless blue eyes. I knew they were blue because I poked myself in the eye the other day. I don't recommend it. I did a flip, then turned and dived for about 500 feet, savouring the feeling of the cool wind rushing past my face. i did a hairpin turn and swooped upward back toward the jet. Soon enough I heard Nudge's exited babble, and swept toward her, enjoying the feeling of power only my 14 foot grey wings could give me.

"And, I wanna see Buckingham palace again, and the changing of the guards, and eat fish and chips and-"

"Nudge, my brain is melting from overload!" interrupted Max loudly. Nudge grinned sheepishly.

"Plus, we're going to somewhere called Bringingham. Dr. M is thinking It'" Cut in Angel.

"Birmingham" i corrected gently "second biggest city in England"

"that's the one with the weird shaped building, with the silver blobbles." Said Dylan "y'know, the mall. Selfidges, I think it's called. I looked it up"

Suddenly, Gazzy gave a yell of excitement "look, England!"

"Where is it? I don't see it!" I said, feigning confusion. Let's see where this takes us…

"I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy" Max said tiredly. _Tiredly_? Maybe blind jokes are getting a bit old… or it might be that we just crossed the Atlantic. Yeah, that must be it.

"Going down!" shouted Nudge. I followed the beat of her wings, and heard feet touch down. I prepared to land.

"Right, airports this way!" exclaimed angel, following Dr. M's thoughts, and the rest of the flock scurried off after him. I could just imagine them looking around in awe. I skulked along behind them, looking forward to seeing, wait, _hearing_ Dr. Martinez. Soon enough, I heard the swish of automatic doors, opening to confused babble. I heard snatches of conversations.

"No, No, ours is the _blue_ one, don't take that one!"

"John, do you have the tickets? No? _I_ don't, I bought the _sandwiches!_"

"Which gate? Why would _I_ know? How am I supposed to know?"

"Bloody queues…"

I automatically drew closer to Max, and reached for her belt loop. I felt her twist to look at me.

"You 'kay?" she asked quietly. I flushed and grunted an affirmative, hoping the others didn't hear.

"We should be meeting Dr M…." I tuned out Dylan's voice. Not that I don't like him, but he's just so… repetitive. So agreeable. Ugh.

Nudges exited chatter filtered into my brain "I'm soo excited about seeing Dr M. again! I mean, so-so about Jeb, and I'm sad Ella couldn't come, but she's staying with her uncle, so she's fine, and she couldn't really miss much school and-"

"Look! Jeb and Dr M." said Gazzy. He's had a soft spot for Dr M. since she brought him a load of transformer cars. It's good for the kid to have a mother figure. No offence to max, but as mother figures go, she's not the most, uh, homely. I listened as Dr M. hugged everyone in sight. She came over to me and just as I opened my mouth to say "S'sup?" she pulled me into a tight hug. This ain't half bad. She pulled away and I cleared my throat, embarrassed.

"Right" said Dr M. briskly, and I heard her quick, tapping steps scuttle off. We were bundled into a hire car, and I heard Nudge and Angel strike up a conversation about the weather. It was generally judged "cloudy, misty, rainy, miserable and grey". I tuned into Max's conversation about destination.

"We're going to a safe house about six miles outside the city centre" huh, safe house. I seem to recall the last one ended up with either eraser popcorn, or max being shot and kidnapped. They all seem to merge. "There's a girl who lives there permanently. You may discover you have more in common than you might think" continued Dr M. mysteriously. Soon enough we slowed down and ground to a halt and I jumped out quickly. I didn't want to be left standing in front of the car like a blind idiot. I quickly grabbed max's belt loop. I followed her closely as we were led to a purple door. Who has a purple door?

"Now, she's a bit…" said Dr M. as Gazzy rung the bell and I heard a muffled shriek of surprise reverberate around the house. The door swung inward with a swish. A high girl's voice with a British accent said "S'sup?" calmly. Max stepped backwards in surprise, forgetting I was standing behind her. I fell over just as there was a loud clatter from inside the house. The girl who opened the door fled with a cry of "_The Chantilly Cream!_ Oh, frick, frick, _FRICK!"_

"Eccentric" finished Dr M. I reached out to find something to pull myself up with, and found what felt like a sheep skull surrounded by pansies.

"I see what you mean" I said slightly dazedly "what happened? Why did you knock me over?" I asked

"Her hair is _red_" said angel

"its _soo_ cool!" remarked nudge

"ginger's are a dying race. Its good she has red hair_" _i said, confused at the commotion

"no,like _tomato_ red" said gazzy

"its all right, it was the muffin tray that fell over, not the Chantilly cream" said the girls voice. I jumed, as I hadn't heard her come back " and what's wrong with my hair being red? Its red nose day"

"last week" said Jeb.

"oh, oops. Good its only temporary, right?" she said brightly "where are my manners? I'm Edie. Edie Cult" I, being the music freak I am, laughed.

"like the song, right?" I asked "by the cult?"

"yeah!" she enthused "no-one's ever got it before! I chose it myself. Thought it fit" she said cryptically. What did that mean?

"we chose our own names too. We're Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Dylan, Max and Iggy" said Max. I heard her go round shaking hands, and when she came to me she hauled me upright.

"nice to meet you, Iggy" she said, then turned "I made cupcakes!" the cheering that followed nearly burst my eardrums.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N 'Kay, just to clear things up, this is post fang. I've read angel and, blasphemy though it is to say this, didn't like it. At all. So I'm ignoring it. And Total's on his honeymoon round wine country. Thank you Dearmaria14122xxx for being my first reviewer! Yay! Because of the review, I've decided to post another chapter which I have written. Next one probably won't be till Sunday, cause I'm lazy. And school and stuff. I think that's it. Except, review, please, and I don't own MR. I do own Edie, though, and five thousand songs. Not really, I'm broke.**

Half an hour later we were sitting in Edie's blue living room eating almond flavour cupcakes iced with Chantilly cream after an instruction to "help yourselves. I made plenty!" she had gone upstairs to wash out the red dye. I was informed that her hair was now dark brown. I thought it would be green or something, seeing as Dr. M said the colours of her house gave her a headache. She was sitting next to me on her lime green couch, unnerving me slightly as she hadn't moved in the last ten minutes. A slight drumbeat and bass line filtered into my ears. Ah, iPod. I listened out for a conversation I could join. Jeb and Dr M. were talking about schools. Boring. The others were playing Pictionary. Ah, yes, let me just look at the pictures with my imaginary eyesight. I reached over and gently pulled an earbud from her ear.

"Hey" I said. Wow, imaginative

"Hey" she replied.

"Uh, so, Chantilly cream on cupcakes. Unusual" I commented

"Yeah, could do with being wetter, though, couldn't it?" wow, criticizing her own cooking? Uh, not sure what to say to that…

"So, you like music? How many songs do you have on your iPod? "I asked. Ah, music, a topic I could talk about for hours.

"Five thousand" she muttered, embarrassed. I nearly choked. And I thought I was obsessed with music.

"I thought of calling myself Bright Eyes, y'know, cause of their song "first day of my life"? The day I escaped from the school really was the first day of my life. I heard it on the radio and thought it fit, but the Edie fit better. Plus who's called bright eyes, anyway? "I was shell shocked

"The school?" I squeaked, smooth…

"Uh-huh" she agreed, nonchalantly. Suddenly, I heard the heavy, cantering footsteps of a staffie scamper into the room. I listened to it run round the room, and then heard a loud clatter as it knocked over all the Pictionary stuff.

"Pickle! Bad dog! Go lie down somewhere like a good boy! Oh, not my feet, you stupid canine!" I grinned evilly

"The dogs lay at your fee-eeet, ediieeee!" I sang.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy" she said seriously, but I could hear the smile in her voice "I'm going out to the garden. Anyone wanna come with?"

"I'll come" I said, and followed her through her yellow back door.

"What'd they do to you at the school?" I asked, curious. Maybe she was part rainbow…I heard her pull her jacket off, and the rustle of feathers. She guided my hand to her wing. The strong, smooth feathers on the backs of her wings were dark blue, like a bluebird's and the fluffy, downy feathers on the inside were a light baby blue. I reached my hand to the other one and stiffened in surprise.

"An angel with a broken wing" I murmured. Her wing was twisted and contorted. Broken. "How?" I asked quietly.

"Erasers" she replied simply. "It healed weird." She gave a dry laugh "had to bind it against my back every day. It doesn't lie flat" I ran back to the house, and dragged Dr. M back. Edie was standing in the same spot.

"Can you fix it?" I asked. I couldn't imagine not flying.

"Yeah. I'd have do re-break it, though" Dr M said quietly.

"do it" Edie's quiet, sing-song voice had taken on a cold, determined edge ."Soon as possible"

"I've got a temporary job here. I can do it tomorrow night. Shall I tell max?" Dr M. asked.

"If you like" Edie's voice had taken on a bored tone. Dr M went back inside calling for jeb and max. I stood stiffly, unsure of what to do. I coughed nervously.

"How did you deal, not being able to fly?" I asked quietly. Bad enough having wings, far, far worse not being able to use them.

"I swan in this lake near here. It was really deep, so it was sort of like flying. Stretch of the imagination though" I heard the sadness in her voice. It brightened suddenly "c'mon, this pity party is getting boring. You must be knackered, flying all the way from America! Come see your room. Um, sorry. I forgot you were blind. It's going to be me and nudge sharing, angel and max, and then there are two rooms for you three boys. You can sort it out. Dylan could go on his own cause of, y'know, tension, or Gazzy could go on his own and you and Dylan could talk about whatever it is that teenage boys talk about." She stopped talking suddenly.

"Wow. Are you one percent nudge or something?" she gave a forced chuckle at my lame joke, and then she grabbed my cuff and carefully steered me upstairs through the house and into the bedrooms, collecting birdkids on the way up. There was the usual "bathrooms second on the right. If you can't find it, it's the one with the bath" and we were soon safely installed in our rooms. I sighed, my mind buzzing with the events of the day, and walked around our new room, cataloguing the locations of furniture.

Edie POV.

I set nudges backpack down on the camp bed she was sleeping on. Her wide brown eyes darted around my bedroom, taking in the high bed, my laptop, my bookshelves, my big , fitted wardrobes, my blue walls decorated with clouds, birds and a sun one side, moon, stars and planets the other. They flicked past my stacks of CD's and my dressing table strewn with makeup.

"Wow! You have so much makeup! And clothes! And I love your walls! The look like the sky!"

I opened my mouth to say "closest I'll ever get to flying" bitterly, then remembered Dr M's words and closed it again. I simply beamed and began to get ready for bed, listening to nudges chatter. I scrambled up onto my bed, then leaned down and held my arms out for pickle. He jumped into them and then made himself comfortable on my pillow. I shunted him over, then drew the quilt around me, dazedly and happily thinking of the day.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N okay, so I know I said I wouldn't update till Thursday, but this did not take as long as I expected. Thank you to my lovely reviewer's: Jayne Mays, Dearmaria14122xxx, YukiAmestu and lexisrush. If you've put this story on alert, you get luff. If you've put me as a favourite author, or this story as favourite story, you get virtual cookies and cupcakes.**

I rolled groggily out of bed, feeling my watch. Seven AM? So not a morning person. I didn't fancy mooching around an empty house for three hours, so got up to clamber back into bed. I suddenly remembered that Edie got up early. Meh, I could do with some company. I dragged on a pair of jeans and an ice blue shirt. Pulling some black converses onto my feet, I leapt up from the bed. I ambled downstairs, trailing my hand across the wall. I was surprised when I didn't find her in the kitchen, given the fact that she told me she can't function in the morning without four bacon sandwiches. Maybe she was still asleep.

I ran my hand over the smooth, black marble worktop. My hand knocked against a kettle, and I thought of bringing her tea to wake her up. British people liked tea, right? I filled it with water at the stainless steel sink **(A/N try saying that six times faster!) **and set it on the stand, flicking the switch. I rummaged in the cupboards and, sure enough, found about eight boxes of teabags. I ran my fingers over the lettering on the front. Weirdly enough, it was all raised lettering. _Green tea, apple tea, _

_Lavender tea, earl grey tea, cherry infusion, Typhoo, pomegranate tea, PG Tips._ God, who knew tea was such a minefield? I remembered an advert on the radio once for PG Tips. Well, they do say go with what you know.

I grabbed a teabag and dumped it in the cup. I stirred it around for a minute or two, and then fished it out. Correction, _tried_ to fish it out. I slipped back in with a wet, unappetising PLOP. After much swearing, I managed to extract it from the cup. Then realised I didn't know how much sugar she took. Or whether she took milk. Gah! Why did I take on this doomed endeavour? I, being the Never-Giving-Up-Even-When-Its-The-Best-Option type, simply added two sugars and some milk, then picked up the mug.

I walked slowly along the hall, up the stairs, sneaked into her bedroom, trying not to wake nudge. Annoyingly, when I got into it, then there was only one set of breathing. She must be out. I wandered slowly back downstairs, wondering what to do next. I dug in the cupboards, finding a flask. I poured in the scorching the liquid, then screwed on the cap tightly. I ran my hands along the sides again. Nada. I slid them over the table. Jackpot! I found a notebook, and flipped through it till I found a page with no black marks on it. I pulled a cheap biro from my pocket and scrawled in shaky, messy writing "gone out. Be back soon. Iggy" I didn't know if half of it was written on the table. I didn't especially care. I ripped the page out, then left it in the middle of the table.

I picked up the flask, and walked out the door, closing it quietly behind me. I wandered around for a while, before realising I had no idea where I was going. God, clever Iggy. Thankfully, I heard some low singing, and I recognised Edie's usually high voice singing _For the girl_ by the Fratelli's, and I smiled. I began to walk towards it and walked into a tree. The singing stopped abruptly, and there was a small rustle of leaves, and then silence.

I got up shakily, and then continued towards where the singing was. I knew she was here somewhere. The silence was the deeper silence of someone being very quiet, than the silence of no-one being there at all. I stopped at the exact point the singing came from, puzzled. Very suddenly, there was a loud "Boo!" and something sung very fast in an arc past my head, brushing it as it went. It was accompanied by creaking branches and rustling leaves. The whooshing of air stopped, replaced by a musical laugh. I smiled, suddenly getting it. Edie had been sitting in a tree, then swung round a branch when I came close .i walked to the tree, put the flask in my pocket, and climbed up it unerringly, to a branch adjacent to the one Edie sat on. I gave her the flask.

"You're good." No answer. I pressed on determinedly. "I made you some tea. English like tea right?" I said, suddenly embarrassed. Come on, man! You're Iggy! Most cocky creature known to man! Her voice snapped me out of my reverie.

"Aww thanks! Which teabags did you use? Not the earl grey ones? They're disgusting. Taste like boiled socks. Eww. Apple?" without waiting for an answer, snapped an apple from a branch and pressed it into my hand, then snapped another off for herself. She passed me the flask of tea, and we ate and drank for a few minutes.

"c'mon. I've been here since six, and I'm bored. I want to go back home now. Coming? "She asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure." I replied. She dropped from the tree, and I heard the light _thump_ of unshod feet land on the grass. I sat in the tree, unsure of whether I could drop from the tree without landing in a bush. I decided to just jump, and landed nimbly on the floor, running after the sound of her feet.

"Are you not wearing shoes?" her steps were a lot lighter than usual.

"Yeah. Shoes are like solitary confinement for your feet, you know?" I laughed loudly, my voice booming through the otherwise silent surroundings. Suddenly, I tilted my head back a degree, smelling the air.

"Do you smell that?" I asked, concerned. When she replied, her voice held a puzzled note.

"no…" her walking picked up speed, and every step we took the smell got stronger, and our pace got faster, until we sprinted up to the house, my nose full of acrid, smoky stench. Edie gasped, and flung open the door. Within the next ten seconds, I heard the _swoosh_ of a fire extinguisher, and her shouting.

"Couldn't you have waited ten minutes until we got back? Or put it out yourself?" I walked up to her, and rested my hand on her shoulder.

"Calm. Deep breaths. Your house is fine. It stands to see another day." She gave a nervous laugh, which ended in a cough due to the smoke. I took my hand from her shoulder to open some windows.

"Sorry. I panicked. I guess I'm just not used to Max making bacon sandwiches yet." An excited yapping heralded Pickle's arrival, and some quiet moans and groans showed that the rest of the flock had just been woken up by Edie's freak-out.

Edie POV

I watched as the birdkids filed slowly in, Angel being the only bouncy one. Max kept shooting me looks of pity and annoyance. What had I ever done to her? I waited until everyone was in the room before speaking, to save time.

"Uh, if you don't mind, unless you're helping with breakfast, out of the kitchen. Not the biggest room in the house." I watched with satisfaction as the kids trailed out, Max going first. When Iggy got up to leave, I quickly clamped my hand round his arm.

"And where are you going? Give us a hand! Catch" I chucked a packet of bacon at him, then drifted over to my boom box. It looked a bit worse for wear, having been dragged from my room, to up trees, to the lake. I hit the on button, then spent a few seconds fiddling with the dials until coherent music seeped through the speakers. I smiled as I heard the distinctive intro to _living on a prayer_ by Bon Jovi. I murmured along with the verses, sweeping round the only room in the house where the walls aren't hard to look at. The white walls were here and there decorated with little black bird silhouettes.

I grabbed a loaf of bread and began sawing at it frenziedly, stuffing the seemingly endless slices into my ancient toaster. Suddenly, the chorus came onto the radio, and I couldn't bear it any longer. With a smile that threatened to break my face in half, I opened my mouth and began to sing. Quietly, of course. I didn't want the flock to think I was nuts. If they didn't already. I danced through the kitchen towards the grill, and put some tomatoes and mushrooms. I glanced over to Iggy, and grinned. Though the mirth in his eyes gave the impression he was laughing at me, his mouth was open and he was singing along too. The loud song finished, and I turned the radio down so we could talk. He was smiling slightly, laughter in his expression.

"What? I asked, curious. "You were singing too!" he blushed furiously, and I grinned.

"It's not that. I was laughing at your seemingly overwhelming urge to fill every tiny silence with music" he grinned, waiting for my response.

"When you put it that way it sounds really weird!" I protested. He laughed lightly, then walked over to the radio and flicked it off. We both stood there in utter silence for around a minute, until we heard a low singing. Iggy stood there looking triumphant. I, on the other hand, stood there looking confused. Until I realised I was the one singing. I blushed slightly.

"Silence is just so freaking loud!" Iggy grinned and stepped closer, wrapping a hand over my mouth. I hummed doggedly until I suddenly realised something. And it wasn't how close Iggy was. Though that was a definite distraction. I was close enough to hear his heart beating, to see the tiny lines at the tips of his perfect smile... No! Stop! Mind-reading seven year old in the vicinity! I grinned evilly behind Iggy's hand. Now it was his turn to look confused. I stopped humming.

"uh-muh" I said. Not intentionally. It was really muffled by Iggy's hand. I slapped it away from my mouth, then tried again.

"Iggy?" I asked.

"What?" he said back.

"Bacon's burning"

**Thanks for reading far enough to read this. If you find the stolen line from a book, then you get an OC. If no-one does, then I'll put an easier one in the next chapter. Review if you liked it, hated it, got any suggestions, want less detail (cause if I carry on like this 30 chapters is gonna be bout two days O.o) want MORE detail. Flames will be given to Iggy to explode things with.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N okay, so super short chappie today, but I wanted to give you a Star Wars day present. Been wearing my lovely star wars jumper all day. May The Fourth Be With You! Ahahaha! Anyway, I present to you… some real fluff! Not the stupid subtle stuff in the last chappie. Thank you to Jayne Mays, my only reviewer for the last chapter. Luff! Yay!**

**Disclaimer (forgot it last time): hahahahaha! Ohh, you weren't joking when you asked if I owned MR?**

Iggy POV

"SHIT!" I swore loudly. Oh no, the bacon! The beautiful, delicious bacon! I jumped away from Edie, immediately missing her warmth. I grabbed the pan quickly off the stovetop, and hissed slowly through my teeth. I dropped the pan on the side, and dashed over to the sink, feeling the blessed, silky water run over my burning hand.

"What did you do? Oh did you burn your hand? Wait there." What else am I going to do? Her footsteps pattered away, leaving me in silence. She came back quickly. For some reason, I felt warmth flood to my face. Oh god, I hoped I wasn't…

"You're blushing! No need to be embarrassed! I've burnt myself so much! Feel." She guided my non-burnt and to her arm, and I ran my fingers over her scars, feeling the smooth, pale skin contrasting against her tan. She snatched my other hand, glopping cream on it, and binding it tightly with a bandage.

"S'not that bad…" I muttered sullenly.

"Oh, don't sulk on me! Its second degree. At least. Stop being stoic." She stopped talking suddenly. I found myself leaning towards her. Why was I doing this? I seemed to have lost control of my body as I leaned further in…

Edie POV

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! Is he gonna kiss me? Or has he dropped something? Argh! We've only known each other five minutes! Thoughts like that raced through my brain. Finally, I managed to separate one from the rest. "What the hell" I closed my eyes, and let myself tilt towards him…

Iggy POV

Suddenly the door slammed open.

"Whens breakfast? Me and the flock are starving! And…" she trailed off slowly, clocking my glare. "Ohhhh. Am I interrupting something? I'll just, uh…" she ran out the door. Next thing I heard was the word "NUDGE!" being screamed. Very loudly. Oh, damn. She just got Facebook, too. I sighed and put my head in my hands. Edie got up and put the ruined bacon in the bin I thought I heard her mutter "R.I.P poor bacon", but no-ones that weird. I got up too and started doing eggs, and took the mushrooms and tomatoes out from under the grill. We worked in silence for a few seconds, both of us unable to think of something to say to the other. Edie's instinct to leave no silence left unfilled kicked in and she began

"_hey Stephen, I've been holding back this feeling so I got some things to say to you. I seen it all, so I thought, but I never seen nobody shine the way you do. Way you walk, way you talk, way you say my name, its beautiful, wonderful, don't you ever change, "_

"Are you implying something?" I asked with a laugh. She laughed too, a musical sound.

"No! Maybe… yes. Was I that obvious?" I just laughed and, for reasons unknown since it seemed like I had been possessed by a gypsy or something, I reached out and pulled her into a hug. She sighed gently, burying her face into my shoulder. I thought I heard the chorus to _crazier_ being mumbled into my hair, but I wasn't sure.

"Implying something?" I asked again she laughed and pulled away.

"You'll just have to work that out for yourself, won't you?" she grabbed the plates of breakfast and called the flock. I stood there for a minute, before going to join them. We spent the rest of the day watching star wars DVD's, playing guitar hero (which Edie won every time. We soon found out that she played just about every instrument known to man) and playing tag in the back garden and the woods beyond. We had just flopped onto the couch after another game, when Dr M came to get Edie.

"Edie? It time to go."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: yay! I got more reviews for this chapter! Thankyouthankyouthankyou to all my lovely reviewers, and anyone that has favourited this fic. You're all awesome. As awesome as bacon. Easily. Maybe even getting up there with chuck Norris and ninja's. Extra thanks to Jayne mays for putting up with my rambles, my bezzie Beth who reviewed under the name "peace love and lemons" then I explained what fanfic lemons were. She didn't mean it like that. And bbqsaucelover for letting me commandeer your story **_**where'd you go?**_** Check it out sometime, peoples! Aaaanyway, if you want any songs worked in, got any ideas, criticism's, anything, just review or PM me. I'll always reply. ALWAYS.**

Edie POV

"Right, anyone wanna come with?" I didn't really expect anyone to get up or anything, but Iggy stood up and walked over to me, unerringly stepping over Pickle lying on the floor. He gave my shoulder a quick squeeze, and I nudged him gently in the ribs. Max slowly picked her way over to me. I tensed. I didn't want max there. Nothing wrong with her, its just I didn't want her to see me like that. I didn't want her to see me weak. She just gave a grim smile and clapped me on the back. I glanced around, clocking the looks of pain and sympathy on their faces. I laughed suddenly, and they stared at me like I'd laughed at a funeral.

"come on, lighten up! Its not exactly a suicide mission or anything, is it?" I smiled to see tentative grins on gazzy, Angel and Nudge's faces. I turned to walk out the door, and began to sing _live and let die_ to fill the grim, apprehensive silence. I broke off.

"right, lets do this thing!" I grabbed Iggy's hand and we walked out the door, and I continued singing loudly. I didn't want to talk. I might show my nervousness. Dr M followed us out, looking grim.

"come on, whats the worst that can happen?" I said too brightly.

"well, it's a lot simpler than what I did with max's chip."

"_Exactly!_ I have faith in you. Plus, your doom and gloom is not exactly doing wonders for my nerves. Ig, you okay?" he usually wasn't quiet this long.

"What? Oh, yeah, fine" his voice had a strained quality. We pulled up outside the clinic. I jumped out of the car, dragging Iggy with me. He looked apprehensive. I didn't blame him. I wasn't particularly chirpy either. Dr M pushed open the door and flicked on the lights. With odd buzzing sounds, the lights slowly flickered into life. She led us into a large room. In the middle was a large examining table. She told me to sit on it. Once I had, she stuck a needle full of valium into my arm, and told me to lie down. That's when everything went all fuzzy.

Iggy POV

I heard the small thump of Edie flopping onto the table. I squirmed. The antiseptic smell was really bugging me. I was panicking.

"Ig?" Edie's small, worried voice snapped me back to reality. I grabbed her hand, pulling up a chair, massaging circles into the back. After what seemed like an eternity, she spoke up again.

"y'know, I heard a song once…" she trailed off and I smiled.

"Never!" I said in a duh-voice. Her hand gripped mine and she gave a hysterical laugh.

"I wasn't_ done. _It was called _who's got a match_. I think you'd like it" her voice was slightly slurred, and she went off on a very rambling tangent. She must be on valium. Ah well, so long as she doesn't tell me she loves me, I'm good.

"You know, I met some bird kids once. I hated them. _Hated_ them!" whaaaaa? She hated us? I frowned. She spoke again.

"It was in the school. They tried to kill me." I don't remember that…

"One was called, ummm…" she grappled with the hazy memory for a while "bob! Ha-ha, he was called bob! He was an idiot." She saw my expression. "They were different birdkids! I _love_ you guys! You're nice." She started to ramble about bob again. I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding, listening to Dr M bustle around.

"Iggy?"

"Mmm?" I replied vaguely.

"Know what?" oh god, please don't tell me you love me...

"I love…" awww, crap. "Bacon!" oh. Anticlimactic. Ah well, works for me.

"Me too!" I agreed.

"Watcha doin'?" she asked Dr M, twisting gently.

"Please stay still. I'm just getting your wing ready."

"Okey dokey!" suddenly, a loud _snap_ seemed to split the air in two. Edie's hand tightened around mine, but I didn't dare pull away. Weirdly, she started giggling.

"Was that lightning?"

"Uh…" what do I tell her? Am I supposed to tell a girl with so many drugs inside her I was surprised she wasn't a pharmacy that someone was snapping her wing?

"Yeah, honey. Sure." Dr M said in a reassuring voice.

"Oh. 'Kay! Y'know, I heard a song once, called _who's got a match?_ I think you would like it."

"You said that." I reminded her gently.

"Oh" her voice held the undertones of a pout. She started singing suddenly. "_I'm a fire and I'll burn, burn, burn tonight…_" god, even when she was utterly drugged up and off her face, she had the voice of an angel. Oh, did I just think that?

"Right, done." Announced Dr M. I gently lifted Edie, who had by now fallen asleep. Or unconscious. I carried her to the car, and lay her in the seat, fastening the buckle carefully. It wasn't long before we arrived home. I walked up the stairs and set her gently on the bed. I went back downstairs, grabbed nudge mid-ramble, and got her to come change Edie into her pyjamas. No way was _I_ doing that. I may be a sexist pig, but I'm a sexist pig with _values._ And one of them is "don't change an unconscious girl who you met five minutes ago into her PJ's" I think it's a sensible rule to live my life by. Bit specific, but whatever. I can deal.

"Iggy?" Edie sighed. I didn't realise she was awake.

"Yeah?" I asked quietly. Too late. Her breathing had slowed, and I could hear her hands gently brushing the sheets as she clenched and unclenched them. She was asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N thank you for my loverly reviewers, and cause she don't have fanfiction (blasphemy!) I'm gonna give a shout out to my lovely Bessie. You know who you are! Yep you! I love you, darlin'! Air hugs and kisses! Mwah! See you at your sis's birthday! Say hi to Smokey! Aaaaaanyway, I got writer's block, so sorry for the late update! But the epiphany came in the music shop, and I practically ran out yelling "yes! The creative juices! The removed the blockage in pipeline three!" y'know, cause I'm that normal. I actually bought a badge that said I'm not normal on it. And a bowtie. And a Stetson. But that's a different, Dr. who related story. Also I heard a song and thought it fit PERFECTLY!**

**Disclaimer: I can't be bothered, so I'll get Wullie the Scotsman to do it for me. Ah dinnae ain th' maximum ride series. Jimmy Patterson diz. Tada.**

Iggy POV

Next morning, I woke to the smell of bacon cooking. I like bacon. Bacon's good. I jumped up, dragging on m on jeans, a t-shirt and a windbreaker. I slipped through the door, careful not to wake Gazzy and Dylan. I padded downstairs and stepped into the kitchen and walked in a trance towards the stove. Dr M must be cooking it, I thought.

"Hey, Ig!" called Edie happily.

"Edie? Why are you cooking bacon?" I asked, confused. She was on valium last night! She should still be asleep!

"Bacon's good. It tastes like heaven." She replied instantaneously.

"No, why aren't you asleep? You should be resting!" I strode forward, grabbed her arm and started tugging her towards the door.

"I'm fine!" she replied stubbornly. She wobbled slightly.

"No you're not! Come on, you're going back to bed! Don't make me carry you upstairs! I will!"

"High blood sugar. I'll be fine. Just give me a minute" she started to drag herself back towards the stove, and turned it off. She wobbled again, and I narrowed my eyes.

"You're lying. You had a skittles eating contest with me yesterday. Not so much as a high blood sugar tremor! Come on, back upstairs." I said firmly, pulling her to the door.

"No, I'm _fine!_" she protested, digging her heels in. I sighed, throwing my hands up, and ran up the stairs. I hammered on Dr M's door.

"Dr M! Edie's in the kitchen and she won't go back to bed! _Dr M!_" I yelled, panicking.

"Calm down, Iggy. It'll be fine." Dr M came through the door, and walked calmly downstairs.

"Right, Edie, come back to bed. You'll tire yourself out, and all my work will be for nothing." Dr M's doctor voice was really good. Edie obviously didn't think so.

"No!" she started to run off, but I looped my arm round her waist. I gave Dr M a questioning look. Well, I turned my face to her and tried to look puzzled.

"Carry her upstairs. It's the only way." Dr M sounded tired. I picked Edie up, bridal style, and began to walk upstairs. I tuned out her protests, and kicked her door open.

"Arrrgh! Where are the erasers? Oh, it's you, Iggy. What's up with Edie? Is she still high off valium?" Nudge said in one breath. Edie giggled and squirmed. I put her on her bed.

"Just make sure she doesn't leave" I sighed to nudge, and walked out the room. Or, tried to walk out the room.

"IGGEEEEEEEE!" squealed Edie "please stay! Till I fall asleep?" I gave a long suffering sigh, but grinned and sat on the stairs that went up to her bed.

"Right, I'm not staying for this love fest. I smell bacon" I glared at Nudge and she ran downstairs, giggling. I turned to Edie and gave her a warm smile. I tried to lean on the bed, but felt myself leaning on something lumpy. I pulled it from under my elbow. It was a stuffed rabbit.

"I never had a stuffed animal" I said thoughtfully.

"Really?" Edie asked "awww. Here, you can have Edward" she chucked a small stuffed lamb at my head. It was really soft. I raised an eyebrow.

"You name your stuffed animals?" I said, with a laugh in my voice.

"Shuddup!" she cried, and then sniffed. "While you were off living with the flock, I was here on my own. It got a little lonely." I felt immediately bad, but then I grinned.

"You know, you're strangely lucid for a person on valium." I joked. She hit me on the arm.

"What can I say? I'm silver-tongued." I laughed.

"Can I borrow your iPod?" she would probably be out for hours. I needed something to do.

"Yeah, sure." I had a feeling she was trying to wave her hand vaguely, but ended up hitting me in the face by accident. "Oops" her voice was getting fainter. A few minutes later her breathing deepened and she fell asleep. I walked back downstairs. The rest of the flock were sitting down eating the bacon Edie had cooked earlier. I snatched a handful and walked outside to eat it. I got outside, and felt the turf squelch under my feet. Eugh, it had been raining. I held a hand out, palm up. Correction- it _was still_ raining.

I walked back indoors and flopped down onto the sofa instead with a muffled "oomph" after stuffing all the bacon into my mouth at once, I groped in my pocket (**A/N minds, gutter, out!) **and dragged out Edie's iPod. It was a bright, sunny yellow. I smiled, typical. After thumbing randomly around the iPod menu's I ended up with it on shuffle. It came straight on to a weird song played on a flute. _Thick as a brick, _I think it was called. I closed my eyes and listened to the gentle, swaying notes of the next song fade in. I smiled slightly, and prepared for a few hours peace. Not quiet, never quiet, but peace.

No such luck, it turns out. I'd fallen asleep, and was woken by Gazzy bounding into the room.

"Iggyyyyyyy, Edie's up and max want's a flock meeting!" I sighed loudly and dragged myself into the kitchen, then sunk into a wooden chair. Edie sat on the table next to me, humming softly. Go figure. Max came in and cleared her throat. Uh oh, throat clearing. Big stuff was about to go down.

"We're going to school!" whaaaaa? I stumbled over my own jumbled thoughts, trying to form a coherent one.

"Cool. My one, right?" asked Edie nonchalantly. Betcha didn't know I knew what that meant.

"Uh, yeah. I've found some leads on itex. Thought we could stay and check 'em out. People would get suspicious if we didn't go." Everyone replied with okay, or something along those lines. I trooped upstairs, but at the landing, Edie grabbed my hand and pulled me into her bedroom. I sat on nudges camp bed awkwardly.

"Why am I here?" I asked, trying not to be rude.

"I was bored." she replied. Useful… I got up and walked around, skimming my hands over surfaces. They alighted on a guitar.

"You play? Would you teach me?" I asked. We were gonna be here a while.

"Mmmhh. You seem more like a bass person." She muttered almost to herself, then grabbed my hand again, and pulled me out of the room. Again. She led me downstairs. Then downstairs _again_.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Basement" was all she said. I walked round the edge of the room, finding at least thirty instruments under my hands

"You play all these?" I asked disbelievingly. She pressed a bass into my hands, and spent the next half hour teaching me a little riff on it. She finally exclaimed that I'd got it, the jumped up. She told me to play the riff over and over. I started playing. On the second time round, carefully picked out guitar noted joined with my bass. Once we'd got it perfect, she taught me the words. After twenty minutes of painstaking repetition and a comment of "you actually sing quite well" we began to sing. I smiled at the song. It was perfect for us.

**(A/N Iggy bold, Edie **_italics_**, both**_** bold italics**_**)**

**Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, you've only been waiting for this moment to arise.**

_Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to seek, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free._

_**Blackbird fly, **__fly, __**blackbird, fly**_**, fly, **_**into the light of the dark black night!**_

**Blackbird fly, **_fly, blackbird fly, _**fly, **_**into the light of the dark black night!**_

**Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, **_you were only waiting for this moment to arise, _**you were only waiting for this moment to arise, **_**you were only waiting for this moment to arise.**_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: 'kay, sorry for the week long update. I thought it would be a lot easier to write than it was, and it didn't turn out right. I had to re-write it. Three times. It was horrible. Okaaay, not much to say today, except : would you guy's mind if I did one of those quote thing's, cause I enjoy reading them and I didn't know if I was the majority or minority. Uh, thanks Smokey Joe (doing this here cause you still won't get fanfiction. At least join fictionpress. Please, I wanna read your story too!), and please review, cause I want at least three reviews. Please? It can just be ideas, song requests, whatever. Just so I know someone's reading this, I'm fine.**

**Disclaimer: FANFICTION, people? I suppose its not as bad as the woman who thought cruise control drove her house van, and resultantly crashed. But still. Brains. Use 'em or lose 'em.**

Iggy POV

"Ig. Geddup." It was a week later, and Edies voice was filtering slowly into my sleep fogged brain. I felt my watch. Half six? Forget this. I rolled over.

"IG! GEDDUP!" this time she yelled loudly. I waved vaguely in her direction with a muffled _urrgh._

"Right, you asked for it." Her voice held a menacing tone, and I only had a second to wonder what she meant before I was hit in the face with a few squirts of water, then a plastic water pistol was thrown at my head with considerable force.

"I'm up! God, woman. Slave driver." I complained incoherently as I shoved her out the room then dragged on my uniform. Yes, uniform. It wasn't too bad, black trousers, white shirt, tie and jumper. After two minutes, I ran to the bathroom before the girls got it, then downstairs to the kitchen. It was half an hour before Dylan and Gazzy came down.

"What took you so long? Had to sort out your Bieber cut?" I sniggered, and imagined the death glare he was sending me. The bacon was snatched off my plate. After _another_ half hour, Max and Angel came down, not uttering a word. Soon after Edie and Nudge wandered in.

"I was just wondering, should I wear the bigger glasses? And pigtails? 'Cause, you know, with this style you can't go over the top" Dylan interrupted Nudge's rambling.

"What style? You just look like a nerd." A long suffering sigh and a brief silence later, Edie answered.

"_Geek chic._ Obviously." Gazzy, Max and Angel giggled. Edie continued. "Right, c'mon. We gotta get the bus. If we miss it we'll have to wake up Val and Jeb" I sighed, grabbed a last handful of bacon, hauled my bag onto my shoulder, and walked out the door. Edie ran up next to me and grabbed my hand. I smiled, enjoying the feel of her rough, calloused fingertips on the back of my hand. She had to ruin the moment.

"Dear lord, Igs, did you even brush your hair? Wait, don't answer that!" she dragged a comb through my hair for a few seconds. I marvelled at how she could sort hair and walk at the same time. "There you go. You are finally presentable. Ya hobo."

A thought popped into my head, and I pulled a Nudge and said it.

"Are we going out?" I asked, then blushed furiously. She gave a little laugh.

"Not quite yet, sweetie" she said kindly. That was something I'd found out in the past week. She called everyone sweetie. Or darling. "I don't come that easy. You gotta do something to impress me." I grinned, and she stopped abruptly.

"What?" I asked, on guard.

"We're at the bus stop. Chill." I heard a bus pull up, and flashed the driver my bus pass, and let Edie drag me into one of the seats. No sooner had I sat down when a cacophony of cat calls rang from the back seat of the bus.

"yo, Ede's, who're the new kids?"

"Fresh meat! Yeah!"

"Who's the ginger?" this resulted in whoops of laughter and a loud chorus of "no soul! No soul!" to ring out. Until a girl stated that I was not ginger. I was too blonde. There were disappointed groans as the dumbass's at the back had their dreams of merciless teasing dashed.

I tuned into some random conversations. Most of the girl's consisted of comments about Dylan. Most of the boy's consisted of comments about Max or Nudge. I fought down my brotherly protectiveness. After around forty minutes of listening to Edie's ever-present iPod, we pulled up outside the school. We dropped Ange and Gaz at the "primary" school next door. We wandered into the office, and after filling out some papers, we were told we'd be in different classes. Nudge was in year eight, and the rest of us were in year ten, but me and Ede's were in a form, Dylan and Max were in a form.

Me and Edie were walking through the halls to our classroom. Behind us I heard the occasional whisper, because Edie was holding my hand again. We were nearly at the door when a sudden loud screech nearly pierced my eardrums.

"IPC! IPC!" I had no idea what that meant, therefore no idea how to reply. Edie replied, her voice sounding like fire.

"He's blind, sir. I have to hold his hand in case he gets lost or runs into someone." Ooh, burn.

"That is no excuse for IPC!" the person spluttered, and I felt Edie shrug.

"Okey dokey. Go on then, _Jeff_, find our form room." She said this first part loudly. She didn't need to. The hallway was silent, except for a few mumblings of "bitchfight!" out of the corner of her mouth, Edie whispered "walk into something. Try to act like you're blind for once". I obliged and wandered into the wall. I put a confused look on my face, and turned a half-circle, walking into the opposite wall. I did this a few times, before the speaker relented.

"_fine!_ But he should have a stick or something" the person stalked off. I felt Edie hold up her hand for a high five, and I hit it flawlessly.

"how did he do that?" whispered conversations were circulating the hall. Edie and I just laughed, then grabbed each others hands and proceeded to the next lesson. On the way, I felt a need to ask a question.

"whats IPC?" I asked. When Edie replied, her voice glowed with mirth.

"inappropriate physical contact." I couldn't help it, I laughed. Loudly. We walked into a room, and Edie guided me to a chair. I flopped into it. After literally a few seconds we were surrounded by curious pupils. A sugar-coated voice was the first to speak.

"heeeey! Who're you? Edie, you didn't say you were bringing someone new to school!"

"cough slut cough" Edie said very quietly. These ordinary humans hadn't a hope in hell of hearing it. I covered my laugh with a sneeze.

"I'm Edie's adopted second cousin." We had tested this, and it was watertight.

"well, if you wanna call to ask any questions" the girl began to speak, but Edie interrupts.

"he won't need to. He has me. I _live _with him" take that, slut-girl! She gave a tiny annoyed sigh, then I heard high heels tapping away and a door slamming. The room burst into laughter.

"good on ya, Edes! Haha, defend your man! God, Lissa's such a slag! Wait, I'm assuming. Are you two…" the guy who spoke had a voice dripping with innuendo.

"no! we're not going out!" Edie replied, embarrassed.

"yet!" I said, raising my eyebrows. The guy laughed and slapped my back.

"I love this guy!" he exclaimed. I laughed, then I turned to Edie.

"I think that went well!" she laughed. Suddenly the door banged open, and the entire room went quiet. I guessed the teacher had come in.

"run, Forrest, run!" Edie stage-whispered in a southern accent, and I laughed.

"ahem Mr, uh, Ride. Would you wish to tell me what's so amusing?" oh crap.

"uh, the economy?" I joked. Edie and a few others laughed.

"I should give you a detention for cheek. But that is technically true. So you're off the hook. For now." I let out a sigh of relief. "right, get out of my sight. Go listen to the headmaster drone about IPC and teenage drinking and how you should all have no social lives. Bye." Everyone stood up, and I followed them.

"yay, soul-sucking waste of time!" sang Edie sarcastically.

"is it that bad?" Edie held my hand to her face do I could feel her evil grin.

"worse…"


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N- ouch, two weeks? Sorry, guys. Got a wee bit distracted, and contracted serious block. I'm fresh out of ideas. The idea farm has been closed. Th idea pipe is blocked. The idea machine mantinence man has taken a holiday in Barbados. Which means… I'm begging for ideas in reviews! Pwetty pwease? Jay, I am actually counting on you. Please, you always have awesome ideas in your stories! Share your creative juices for the good of fanfiction everywhere! Okay, probs some major fluff (maybe even some actual plot! All these chapters seem kind fillery to me…) coming up, if not in this chapter then later ones. Thanks for the reviews, can we try for three? Please? There is a direct correlation between review numbers and update time.**

Iggy POV-

We all walked out of the room, most people chattering and laughing. Like monkeys, or some sort of loud wild animal. Haha, look who's calling who an animal! Edie started humming a funeral march, and I dug her in the ribs with my elbow. She elbowed me back.

"oww! No fair. You have really pointy elbows!" she simply poked me again. We filed down rows of plastic chairs. Soon the hall was filled with the chatter of hundreds of student's. it was way too loud and I was beginning to panic. I drummed my fingers on my thigh, then impulsively reached for Edie's hand. She wrapped her fingers around mine. I felt my panic melt away. I heard the long, slow, sad notes of an organ playing. Everybody fell immediately silent and stood up. I got up hastily, and felt embarrassed. I knew I would tower over everyone here. The headmaster began to speak. I recognised the voice as the same one that had talked to Edie earlier. We sat down.

"welcome to our new student's. hurrah and all that. Now, we have had an amazing influx of IPC in the last few days…" I tuned out. he could send monkey's on red bull and lucozade tablets to sleep. I had thumb wars with Edie for the next half an hour, before we were finally dismissed so we could go to the next lesson. Science. We arrived in a horrible room smelling of chemicals and disinfectant.

"right, I'm Mrs Holden. I am going to be your science teacher this year. Today we will be studying battery farming. Now please turn to page 117… Jeff, are you alright? You look very pale." I broke out of my memory of the school to hear this. Unusualy, when she said battery farming, I didn't get the usual horrible knot of panic in my stomach that I usually got. Edie spoke up for me.

"He's always that colour, miss. He doesn't tan very well" I smiled at her gratefully, and she gave my hand a tiny squeeze. We grappled through another three lessons in this fashion, before we were let out for lunch. Not even food tech was that fun. We were doing theory. The most I learned was that just about all of Edie's teachers hated her. And me. Probably because we excelled at giving snappy, cutting, sarcastic comebacks whenever we were told off, but did not do as well at the actual subject. Ah well, when am I gonna need to solve a quadratic inequality? Only her food tech teacher seemed to like her.

"do you wanna go to the chippie?" Edie asked

"chippie?"

"you know! A fish and chip shop!"

"what's a fish and chip shop?" this last question left Edie silent with surprise. No mean feat. She could be as bad as Nudge.

"you have not lived!" she exclaimed, then dragged me towards the gates.

"are we allowed out at lunch?" I asked. Like the good boy I am. Edie laughed.

"hell no! we'll be mugged or summat. Don't know by who. Only thing that lives here are pigeons. Not even the nice, glossy pigeons in pigeon park. Pigeons with one leg, cataracts and rabies." I laughed and let her drag me out of school. It was literally a thirty second walk to the nearest chippie, and it was far from empty. I recognised lots of voices, so I guessed we weren't the only ones breaking the rules. Edie ordered four large fish and chips, and we went to sit behind the gym to eat them. They were hot and delicious. I laughed at the thought of Dylan and Max suffering in the canteen.

We finished our chips and went walking past the playground. The second we walked by a section of it, a hail of shouts rained down. i tuned into one person's voice, who wasn't yelling about me and Edie going out.

"hey! Jeff! Come and play footie! We need you to even out the teams!" Edie began pushing me in the direction of the voice.

"I don't even know how to play!" I protested.

"kick the ball at the goal"

"I'm blind"

"I'll tell you if the ball's coming your way" I sighed bitterly, and let her shove me towards the people playing.

"you're shooting towards the school, 'kay?" I nodded, and they started playing. Almost immediately, I heard Edie's voice yelling.

"Jeff! Ball, three o clock! Now!" I kicked out at three o clock, and felt my shoe connect with something, and it went careering off. I heard a muffled thunk, a muffled silence, then Edie's voice.

"that's one nil to Jeff's team! Play on!" I heard the barely concealed amusement In her voice, and the next ten minutes went in this fashion, until, at sixteen nil to us, they decided that we won. Me and Edie walked off laughing, until Edie pushed me behind the gym, with a quiet "stay there." I immediately knew why.

"Ediee! Heeeyyyyy!" Queen Slag (Aka Lissa) squealed "you haven't seen a very tall, fit, strawberry blonde boy with a side fringe (**A/N does Iggy have a side fringe? Ah well, he does now.)" ** I could practically hear Edie grinding her teeth.

"no. push off" Edie ground out, and I winced at the bitterness of her tone. I could tell she hated lissa. Not in a schoolgirl hate way, in an i-hate-you-more-than-people-who-boil-puppies-alive way. I grinned evilly (one of my specialities…) and stepped out from behind the gym.

"don't you think I'm fit?" I asked teasingly, whispering "play along." Into her ear. She wrapped an arm around my waist.

"of course I do, Iggy!" Edie was an inch away from hysterics. Lissa spluttered with indignation, and ran off. The playground was silent, then everyone burst into laughter. Edie wriggled out of my grip.

"c'mon. we have music next" Edie could hardly disguise the glee in her voice, and I let her drag me to the music room. We queued up outside, and I listened to the laughter and snatches of music played on just about every instrument that was ever made. Ever. It was quite a noisy corridor…

The teacher ushered us in, and told is in a bored voice

"today we're doing duets. Pick a partner and an instrument each, then find some sheet music or something. You both have to use different instruments. No original compositions. Don't fight over the practice rooms. Shoo." Edie grabbed my hand a dragged me into a room full of instruments.

"where is this?" I asked.

"storeroom. Where we keep the instrument's. here's my shelf…" she replied quickly. She dug around on the shelf, then dragged off a large bass, handing it to me. She pulled down a blue acoustic guitar, and led me to a practice room.

Edie POV

I looked round my favourite practice room. It was the furthest from the others, and it was quite small. There were hundreds of names scratched into the dingy grey walls, the ceiling and carpet were plastered in chewing gum, the whiteboard, table, chairs and music stand were all graffitied in sharpie. It was, in that respect, exactly the same as the rest of the school. But it had its redeeming features. The wide, wall-length window showed the cityscape, and you could see a beautiful lake in the countryside just beyond the urban jungle. The beautiful oak upright piano had been sanded so that the gloss had worn away, but it made the most beautiful sound in the world.

Iggy flopped down onto one of the gum-encrusted chairs, picked up the bass, and begun strumming the riff to blackbird.

"we are doing Blackbird, right? It'll be easier than learning a new song" he stated, his hair flopping right over his eyes.

"uh-huh" I mumbled, then sat down opposite him. Lifting my guitar onto my lap, I pulled a bass pick from my stash behind the whiteboard (the school ones are crap, what can I say?), and slid my favourite pick off my necklace. I picked out the melody, then fiddles around with my guitar for a while, tuning it. For half an hour, we perfected the song, even adding a little solo in the middle, then we heard Mr I-Get-Paid-Whether-These-Kids-Learn-Or-Not (is it just me, or are all my teachers really lazy?)yelling at us to come back to the classroom.

"lets kick butt!" Iggy said, grinning.

"no-one in England really says butt…" I pointed out. hey, tough love.

"ass?" Iggy tried questioningly.

"mmhh…" I said non-commitedly "arse, yes. But that's more of an expletive than a word for the human backside"

"god, you're such a killjoy! Lets go be better at playing music than them" such a sulk…

**Peace out, y'all. Dear lord, I am never allowed to say that again. Ever. Ugh.**

**~Fridgey**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Oh My God…. SOOOO SORRY! Ugh, a month… I promised to devote my time to exams, though… soon the summer holidays so I'll probably get a lot more up then. Also, I lent my sister my laptop and she got it soaked so this would have been up two days ago but me and my dad were taking it apart and drying it out. it works now, though… anyway, enjoy, please review, and it won't happen again, promise!**

Iggy POV

I felt at least fourteen sets of eyes on me as we walked into the room. Me and Edie sunk into two uncomfortable plastic chairs, and I turned my face towards the teacher. I think he thought it was a bit creepy because of his nervous cough.

"Ahem… well, because Jeff is new here, his group will go last. Uh, Lissa, you go first." Mr Annoying said. (note to self- learn his real name) Lissa gave a little squeal and jumped up.

"okay, she's dragging the captain of the rugby team up to play with her. He' looks sullen, and actually really annoyed to be stuck with her. He's got a guitar. She's got an, ahem, _triangle_." Edie commented. She stopped there because Lissa started to sing. In annoying, high pitched, fingernails-down-blackboard, don't-quit-your-day-job voice. Needless to say, I hated it. The guy on guitar hit more wrong notes than a four year old would. Worst of all, they played _the climb_ by Miley Cyrus.

When they finally finished to a small smattering of applause, Lissa stalked past.

"beat _that_, biatch!" she whispered. I'm not sure, but I have a feeling Edie gave her the middle finger. Then again, not exactly her style. I laughed slightly._ If only she knew…_ we waited through another six pairs. Eventually, it was our turn. Edie gently wrapped her fingers around mine, and guided me to the front of the room. She nudged me with her elbow, my signal to begin playing. I strummed out my bass riff carefully, doing my best to keep out any wrong notes. I was sure my concentrating face made me look like a monkey, but I could deal.

The clear, loud notes picked from her guitar rose into the air, and melded with my simple bass piece. Ugh, that was stupid. Forget I said it. Then she started to sing. Her soft, sweet voice harmonised perfectly with the music, and the whispered conversations at the back of the room ceased abruptly. This may be me being big-headed, but there seemed to be a few gasps in there as well. It switched to my part to sing. All too soon, the song was over. There was a small silence, then a wall of sound hit my ears. Once the roar of applause died down, I whispered to Edie.

"by their reaction,, you'd think they had never heard you sing!" she laughed nervously.

"oh, they haven't" she replied. Then she stalked over to Lissa. "I _beat_ that, biatch. By the way, you can't sing worth crap." Lissa gasped in indignation.

"I'm sorry to say this, Lissa, but Edie has a point. Maybe you'd be happier in, I don't know, French?" I was starting to like this teacher… "Edie, Jeff, may I see you at the end of the lesson?" I nodded numbly. Frick, what have I done now? For the record, I think that our duet was freakin' awesome. Just my humble opinion, m'lord. I listened to Lissa storm out in an undignified huff, then chairs scrape back, and the door slamming. We sat in awkward silence. Then I placed one hand on top of the other and waggled my thumbs.

"awkward turtle…" I said, and Edie giggled. Mr Whatsisface (ah, screw this. He's called bob. Yo, bob. Wagwan.) coughed.

"okay, first of all, Edie. You spent three years bringing in notes from doctors saying you had all sorts of throat problems so you didn't have to sing. Why? You sing beautifully" Edie squirmed uncomfortably. " but, Jeff! you sing well, but how long have you played bass for?" damnit, my turn.

"uh, two hours? Approximately" I replied. Real conversation killer, that, judging by the silence.

"uh…i… natural are both, for homework, to join the school rock band. They are looking for a main and backing singer, and a bassist." Hell to the no! I ain't joining no pansy school band!

"but…" Edie protested. Bob cut in quickly (hahaha…. Bob.)

"its compulsory" he growled. Eugh. Compulsory, worst word in the dictionary. After cancer and scientists. Edie groaned.

"can we go home, now? We're gonna miss our bus." Edie pointed out.

"plus Max and Dylan and Monique will be worrying" I added.

"and we need to pick up Jeff's adopted sister and brother." Edie finished. Hell, we should be on the debating team! If we didn't care about being teased forever, that is.

"uh, okay. Dismissed." Said Bob. He shuffled off, and me and Edie stood up, scraping our chairs across the floor. We walked to the front of the school, and met Nudge on the way.

"hi guys! Omg, how are you? How did it go? I had so much fun and I met so many new friends! This is Amy, this is Lizzy, this is Vicky, this…" I tuned out. I couldn't be bothered to shut her up. Let Edie deal with it… Max and Dylan came up behind us. I recognised the tread of Dylans stupid expensive Italian shoes. Stupid Dylan. Ugh.

Edie POV

Dylan showed up, followed by an entourage of squealing year tens. I, myself, didn't see the appeal of a stuck up pretty boy. We walked through the gates and along the road for a while. It was autumn, and all the leaves were falling from the trees. I let my feet swish through them almost silently. The others walked along, disturbing piles of leaves and generally making an unholy racket. I questioned how they stayed alive after escaping, because they could wake the dead, let alone rouse a few erasers.

I swung into the primary school. Max and Ig got tackled by Angel and Gazzy, and I got attacked by a few kids, too. Long story, a few years back I got caught graffiting the sign on Musi lane so that it said Music Land, and as community service they made me start up a youth group for primary school children. It was fun, but I kinda hated the kids. Not cause they were nasty kids, they were real sweet, but cause I never had a chance at this kinda thing.

Anyway, pity party rudely interrupted, I shook the kids off and wandered out of the gates, followed by Iggy, who had hoisted Gazzy onto his shoulders, Dylan and Max, who were deep in conversation, Nudge, who'd managed to strike up a conversation with a small child about Barbie, and Angel, who kept shooting Gazzy jealous looks. I glared at Max, in a "go make the youngest flock member feel included, cause I ain't picking up your slack, missy" kinda way, but she was busy with her boyfriend, so I sighed. If I get yelled at for trying to overtake her leader job, I thought, I swear I will rip out that girls throat. I picked up Angel and sat her on my shoulders. She smiled down at me gratefully, and I grinned back.

We rounded the corner, and I spotted the bus pulling into the bus stop. Crap. I started to run, years of fleeing from erasers making me faster than the rest, even with a seven-year-old on my shoulders.

"come ON!" I yelled "next bus isn't for half an hour!" I saw them beginning to catch up, but the bus was closing its doors. I poured on the speed, and rushed for the bus. I hammered on the doors until the driver opened up.

"dude, I swear you dented one of them!" he commented. Oops. I just smiled sweetly, showed him my bus pass, and passed Angel's up to her. The others thundered onto the bus, and we selected seats at the back.

"close one" said Iggy. I just glared at him. What a waste of a glare…


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N … sorry**

Iggy POV

We leapt off the bus and onto the pavement of the bus stop. I think Edie had Angel on her shoulders again, and Nudge was talking nineteen to the dozen to her. I hauled the gasman onto my shoulders, as well, and jogged to join her. Max and Dylan seemed oblivious to our presence. I swear, that girl has really let her duties go… I mean, seriously? She spends all this time chatting to Dylan and leaves all the flock stuff to me, and Edie as well now, yet she's probably going to get all up in her grill for trying to take the flock away from her.

"Edie?" asked Angel's small voice. Aww, she's so sweet.

"yeah, chick?" replied Edie.

"I'm starving, can we go to the shop?" ah, now you mention it…

"oh, sure. There's an offie near here, I reckon we could get a couple tip tops or something." She said. We crossed a busy road, and walked into a freezing cold shop.

"Hey, Ede's. The usual, err, times six?" said a deep voice. Edie laughed.

"Yeah yeah, Hamin. How's life? Still living the dream?" another laugh.

"Oh, yeah. Running an offie, I'll be a millionaire in a week! That'll be £11.97" I heard Edie rustling in her pockets as Angel passed me two packets of crisps and a coke.

"Edie, could you grab a zucchini as well, Dr M needs one for dinner." Piped up Nudge.

"What's a Zucchini?" asked Edie. Hamin answered her.

"I think it's a courgette"

"Ooohhhhh"

OoOoOo time skip because I own the Magical Kazoo of Time! OoOoOo

I lay on my bed, thinking about the day. Mostly, it was rubbish, but there were some parts that were good, like me and Edie performing in music…

"Oi, Igtard! Get your arse into the kitchen and help me cook tea!" I sighed and rolled off the bed. I walked unerringly downstairs and into the kitchen, where Edie was leaning to the counter, poring over a recipe book. I could hear her whispering words to herself. Obviously she was just as adept at reading as us. I squeezed past her, my hand brushing her back accidentally. Suddenly, I stopped. I thought I had just seen a flash of a recipe book when I touched Edie. I slipped my hand into hers tentatively, and gasped when the recipe book page flashed up again.

"What?" Edie asked, confused.

"I can see when I touch you!" I said, excited.

"No way!" she exclaimed "that's awesome!" she grabbed my hand, only this time, nothing happened. My face fell.

"It's not working anymore" I said, dejected. So long, dreams of vision…

"Maybe it only works when I'm really concentrating." Edie theorized. She stood very still, and suddenly a picture of a large, old looking, white fridge popped up into my vision. I grinned and Edie giggled. The fridge disappeared, only to be replaced with an image of a brown staffie that ran round the kitchen excitedly. I laughed, and requested her to show me images of the flock. I got a flash of a tall, tanned girl with dark blonde hair down to her shoulders, with a boy sitting next to her who I guessed was Dylan. So he _does _have a Bieber cut! Then came an image of a dark skinned supermodel with her hair in two bunches and oversized glasses perched on her nose, and an angelic six and eight year old sitting next to each other in a tree.

"Okay, show me a picture of you!" I demanded, feeling like a small child asking for sweets. Edie sighed, but obliged. She walked off and returned with some photos.

"I didn't know the guy was taking these, okay?" Edie said, and then touched the back of my hand gently. I immediately saw an image of a girl sitting on top of a roof. She was tanned, and hand waist length, sort of curly, really dark brown hair. Even past the baby blue guitar she was playing I could tell she was super skinny. She was wearing bright red skinny jeans on her long legs dangling off the edge of the roof, and big doc martin boots on her feet. She wore a tight t-shirt, with a picture of some sushi on it, and the words "this is how I roll." Her eyes were closed, her mouth was small, and smiled slightly as she played the guitar, and her nose was straight, and turned up a little at the end.

Then the image changed. It was the same girl, but her mouth was twisted in a snarl, she was leaping off the roof and she had her guitar slung hastily over her back. I was quite surprised to see her middle finger flashed at the camera, but her eyes were the most drawing things about her. They were huge, and light, icy blue. They were ice cold and furious. In short, she was gorgeous. I knew she'd be pretty, but this?

"This is where I found out that he was taking photos" she laughed. I finally managed to choke out some words.

"Bloody hell"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N- ooh, aren't you lucky! Two updates in two days! I got a nice bit of plot in there what Jayne Mays suggested, like, six months ago, which I've been building up to. Slowly. Few more chapters, then we can get some action? I've got some ideas, some of which involve wild boars. Oh, BTW, the three month or so break was due to my sister getting stupid drunk and breaking my laptop. Seeing as I only managed to recover my files on Sunday, I am doing well, no? **

Iggy POV-

"Okay, so we've added the Copper Sulphate and put it on the Bunsen burner. What's next?" I asked. I and Edie were in chemistry, making some blue crystals. It was boring. I got excited when we had double chem, but so far we've blown nothing up. Hardly chemistry at all, if you ask me.

"That's it now. We just have to wait" she replied, sitting down with a light thump.

"How much longer do we have left?" I asked.

"Bout half an hour." There was a slight pause, then "there's some wicked chemicals in here, wanna make a bomb?" I laughed easily, then realised she wasn't joking.

"Yeah, sure!"

Fifteen minutes later, I raised my head from my beaker of chemicals as Edie went to check the crystals.

"I think they're done… OMG, Ig, how did you even do that?" She rushed over, and touched the back of my hand, sending me an image of an evaporating dish with a small, perfect, blue crystal heart sitting in it. I'm just gonna say, it involved a lot of science stuff. And some toxic chemicals I nicked from Gazzy's room.

"Is the answer still no?" I asked. Oh, yeah, I should probably fill you in.

Last night, after we'd told the rest of the flock about Edie's new power (they were ecstatic!), Edie made me give her a flying lesson. Dylan helped me carry her to a cliff overlooking the sea, about a twenty minute flight from the house. It was weird; I swear she weighed, like, two pounds. He wandered off down the beach as we stood on top of the cliff. She brought us to a spot where the cliff dropped sheerly into deep, rock-free ocean.

"Okay, so basically, on the count of three, I'm going to shove you off this here cliff, and you're probably going to instinctively snap your wings out and fly. If not, you'll fall into the sea, I'll hear the splash and come and grab you. Capiche?"

"Yep" she replied, sounding less than thrilled at the prospect of being thrown off a cliff. Can't imagine why.

"Okay, here we go. One…" I gave her a shove on the back and she fell over the edge of the cliff. There was a split seconds pause, and my stomach dropped with worry, before I heard the rustle of feathers and she landed lightly back next to me, laughing.

"Right!" I said authoritatively. "Now for steering!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOooo

"Hey, guys, if we don't leave now, we'll not be back before midnight" Said Dylan, flying up to meet us as we practised the turning we learnt from the hawks. I nodded, and began flying. Out to sea, apparently.

"Igs! Opposite direction" called Edie. I blushed furiously, turning on a dime (I love doing that!) and flew off speedily. I was surprised to find Edie matching me stride for stride (or flap for flap).

"Hey, how come you're so good at this?" I asked. She gave an annoyed huff.

"Always the tone of surprise" I laughed.

"Seriously, though. Dylan was absolute crap when he was a beginner!"

"Hey!" yelled Dylan.

"Yeah, yeah." I called. "Point is, you are WAY better than you should be." Edie gave a nervous cough.

"I may have already known how to fly…" I gaped at her.

"Why did you make me carry you?" I asked.

"I didn't. I just flew along beneath you." Knock me over with a feather…

"So, why want a flying lesson?" I asked. I don't get females!

"To see if you would teach me." she said, then spiralled off quickly.

"Will you go out with me?" I yelled after her. Whoa, where did that come from?

"Maybe!" she yelled back "I need some sort of gesture or something."

I gaped after her. Dylan flew up next to me.

"Smooth, bro." I scowled at him.

"Don't try to be street. You just sound like an idiot."

"Ooh, harsh" I whapped him round the head with my wing. Hey, that's fun!

"'course I will! How can I resist a guy that made me a heart out of copper sulphate crystals, and then made a bomb in my chemistry classroom?" I grinned at her as the deafening bell rang for lunch.

"I need to pee." She told me. Charming. She dragged me through a corridor, then parked me across the hall from the girl's loos.

"Stay there." She instructed, then her footsteps were swallowed by the mass of the crowd. I looked around. Two minutes, two minutes. I could make it. It's not like I'm gonna get attacked here.

"OMG, JEEFFFFF!" screamed a high pitched voice. Scratch that last. I am getting attacked.

_Max, Dylan, god, even Nudge'd do! _I prayed to myself. Obviously, no-one came. I got smacked in the chest by teenage girl.

"What are you doing here, all on your own?" she crooned. Ugh, creep.

"Get off me, Lissa." I gasped, shoving her away.

Too late though, because I heard Edie gasp, and run off.

"Well done, slag." I growled, then sprinted off, smacking into people as I went.

"Edie, EDIE! Wait!"

**A/N- ooh, cliffie! Tune in next time for… whatever this is that I'm doing with my time.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N sorry it's so short, but I really wanted to get a chapter up before I went to Italy, and also I wanted to stop it where I did, and couldn't think of how to drag it out any further. Take a look at my new fic, which is gonna be a MR-hunger games cross.** **Up tomorrow or Thursday. Or maybe today :O**

Iggy POV

I ran around the school for about ten minutes, before crashing into Nudge.

"like, omg HAI! What's up, Iggy? I just saw Edie running off, like, north or something. I don't know. She seemed pretty upset. When I asked her why she was just, like, OMG, I hate Iggy. I don't know why, though, last I heard she'd just agreed to go-" I slapped a hand over her mouth.

"did she fly off?" I asked. I released my hand.

"well, you see-" I replaced my hand

"DID SHE FLY OFF?" there was a brief silence, then Nudge replied, sounding scared.

"yeah…" I swore softly, the leapt into the air and unfurled my wings. I heard Nudge yelling below me.

"SOMEONE COULD HAVE SEEN!" ah, well.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 OMG time break.

I got back to the house just as Dr M walked out.

"Edie's scaring me. She seems really angry. But she's cleaning." She sighed. "i wish max cleans when she's angry." I laughed, then went into the kitchen. I heard the ticking of a metronome, overlaying some music, and the hissing of an iron. I also heard Edie singing softly under her breath. Only, she'd changed every word to a swearword. Okay, this was creeping me out.

"Edie?" I asked quietly. I heard her whirling around, then I was reeling on the floor. I tasted blood in my mouth.

"you… punched me. In the face." I said, shocked. I heard her run off. God, women. So stroppy. I quickly followed her as she ran into the woods. After a few minutes, she span round.

"why?" she screamed at me.

"she jumped on me!" she snorted in derision.

"of course she did, she's a slut! What I mean is, why didn't you push her off?"

"I was!"

"not nearly fast enough, if you ask me!"

"I didn't have time! You came over just as I was pushing her off. I heard her intake breath to speak again, when I heard a rustling in the trees.

"shh!" I hissed she spluttered, outraged.

"did you just shush me? Did you seriously just-"

And that's when ten erasers burst from the trees.


	13. Chapter 13

**WARNING: This chapter contains swearing. Which is why it's rated T!**

Iggy POV

Now, seriously- how many of you saw that coming? I got immediately into battle position, and was surprised when I felt Edie next to me do the same. I heard the Erasers encircle us. And I had absolutely no idea what to do.

"Got a plan?" I asked Edie, because I sure as hell didn't.

"Erm, not so much a plan as a _thing._ It's a bit like a plan, only greyer." Well, that was better than what I had. I shrugged.

"I can work with that-what's your _thing?"_ there was a brief pause, then-

"U and A at 10 o'clock, grab a branch on the way up. Smack 'em in the muzzle- it's their weak point."

"Why not just punch?" Also, why weren't they attacking?

"Extra reach and I don't want you to cut your knuckles on their teeth" Aww, in our world, that's actually quite a sweet and caring sentiment… our lives are quite messed up, no? I didn't really hear anything else, because that was when I got punched in the face.

"Augh! Bitch!" I yelled, and heard an Erasers indignant growl.

"I'm a guy!" man, I forgot how easy it was to wind Erasers up!

"Sure about that, you fight like a girl!" I yelled, then laughed and dodged a snap kick that was aimed at my stomach.

Edie POV

I heard Iggy taunting the Erasers with lots of insults against their gender. He seemed to be winning, but I knew that if we didn't get into the air soon, we'd be done for.

"Ig! Plan Grey!" I yelled. He groaned.

"But I'm having fun down here!" I grinned, then used my 'bossy voice'

"Are you arguing with me? Get yourself up in the air, or I'll put you up there!" he made an ooooh noise, and one of the erasers chipped in.

"Ahh, burn!" I grinned.

"Good idea!" yelled Iggy as he flung a small bomb at him. I have no idea where he keeps those… He burst into green flames. Cool. I jumped into the air, closely followed by Iggy. Most of the erasers followed us, and I was ecstatic to see that they still couldn't fly worth crap. I dived quickly and ripped a branch off a tree. I zipped up behind an eraser like… a humming bird or something equally poetic and dumb. I tapped him on the shoulder, and he spun round. Mid-air. He wasn't very good at it and dropped about ten feet. I did a fake watch as I waited for him to rise up again. He drew back his arm to punch me, and I swung the branch round to smack him in the face. There was a sickening crunch, and he cried out and dropped through the tree-tops.

Now we were up in the air we were holding our own much better. It was only about five minutes before the forest floor was littered with Eraser bodies. Annoyingly, one of the Erasers had slashed my arm. The little sod. I glanced over at Iggy, and saw that his nose was gushing blood.

"Oh my god, you broke your nose!" I exclaimed. He touched it gingerly, winced, then toughened up.

"No I didn't" he said thickly. I gave a little laugh.

"I beg to differ. Your nose is practically parallel to your face. Rather than perpendicular. Let me fix it."

"No. it's fine. Plus, I bet you're hurt worse." I gave a little double take.

"What because I'm a girl?"

"No, because I can smell your blood over mine. Which is right next to my nose."

"What are you, some sort of twilight vampire? Anyway, it's only a scratch on my arm. We're fixing your nose first."

"We're fixing your arm first."

"Nose"

"Arm"

"Nose"

"Arm"

"Nose"

"Ar-"he didn't finish that sentence. Because that's when I leaned in close and pressed my lips against his. They were chapped from the wind, and tasted like blood, but I didn't care. Not exactly the most romantic of moments, but hey, it had the desired effect, as he stopped protesting long enough for him to let me reposition his nose, and wipe off the blood. Then I let him bandage up my arm. He was still stuttering a bit. At least he shut up for a while…

"Right then." I said "shall we go?"

"How are you so… chilled? We just got attacked by _erasers!_ Who have left you alone for_ two years!_ And all you've said is _let's go?"_ I stared at him. I was completely perplexed. Why was he so freaked out? From what I've heard they've had erasers popping out at them left, right and centre since they left Colorado.

"Erm, I don't know. I'm just not very… flappable, I suppose." He snorted.

"That's not what I've seen! You went completely off your nut earlier!" I gaped at him.

"I just fixed your bloody nose! And, if I were you, I would remember who's getting you back." Hah, that shut him up.

Iggy POV

Almost as soon as we walked through the doors of Edie's house, we were bombarded with shouting and noise.

"Whoa, what happened here, guys?" Dylan called.

"We got ambushed by Erasers." Said Edie. "I'm just gonna go get some ice for Ig's nose. He broke it."

"No I didn't!" I called after her as she walked to the kitchen.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." She muttered. I rolled my eyes, as Max walked in.

"What happened to your nose?" screeched Max.

"Erasers." Replied Edie as she returned with the ice, answering for me. I scowled at her, and she gave a laugh.

"You love me really. Shove that on your face." I pressed the ice to my nose, almost sighing with the relief as Max called in all the others. Soon they were assembled, and in almost in time at all they had reached the decision to return to America. The group dissolved slowly, Nudge going to read fashion magazines, Dylan going to play one of Edie's guitars she'd lent him, Max to stalk Fang on the internet, and Angel and Gaz to colour some stuff. I sometimes forget how young they are.

Frowning slightly, I realised that I hadn't noticed Edie leaving. I wandered up to her bedroom, down to the basement where she kept her instruments, round to the kitchen. I couldn't find her anywhere, and returned to the basement. It was where she normally was, since it not only housed her guitars and other assorted instruments, but also had a massive, squashy cushion that Pickle liked to sleep on. God knows why a thirty centimetre puppy needed a metre square cushion for a bed. I expected to find him curled up on it, asleep, but instead found it empty. Not only that, but the hook which she kept his lead on was bare. I quickly ran up the stairs, nearly colliding with Max at the top, who had Angel's school bag in hand, obviously trying to get her to do some homework. I dodged round her and dragged on a pair of vans.

I slipped out the back door, jumping the fence at the end of her yard and walking into the woods. Even as my feet touched the floor, I could hear Pickles high pitched yipping. I followed the noise until I reached a small clearing in the dense wood. I took a little step out.

"Edie?" I asked, my voice ringing around the little circle of trees.

"Hey, Ig." She replied quietly. I heard the swishing sound of her arm swinging though the air, as if to throw something, and Pickle lumbering off in his awkward little puppy way. She walked over to me.

"So, America, huh?" she said sadly "Lotsa… cars, and stuff. " A smiled a little.

"Are you coming? I noticed Max didn't really consult you or anything" I plucked three long blades of grass from the ground and began braiding them in my fingers.

"Yeah, she didn't really. We'll come if you'll have us." I grinned, relieved. I didn't know her very well, but I still didn't want to leave her here.

"We had that little git Dylan, didn't we? The only difference is the flock actually likes you. Max included, even though she's not great at showing it." She laughed loudly, almost musically (Gee, what is _up_ with me today?) and wolf-whistled for Pickle. He scampered back, jumping up at us. As dogs go, Jesus he was thick.

"Aww, who's my good little boy, then? Who? Is it you? Yes it is! You're my little cutie! Aren't you?" she cooed, scooping him up and starting back towards the house. I rolled my eyes and followed. Suddenly, she whipped round.

"Thanks for cheering me up. I thought you guys were gonna leave me behind." She said, and then took a little step forward, her feet cracking branches on the ground. She abruptly kissed me on the cheek, then turned to run away. At the last second, I reached out and grabbed her sleeve. She twisted back, and I leaned down, pressing my lips to hers. Her hand went to the back of my head, pulling me closer, while my hand snaked round to rest on her back. She pulled away a little.

"Iggy…" she murmured, and I smiled softly.

"Yeah?" I whispered.

"You're squashing the dog." She took a step back and set Pickle on the ground. "Come on, let's get back."

**A/N Uh, sorry about the wait. If you hadn't already noticed this is gonna be infrequently updated… mostly because Edie annoys me, a little because I'm lazy, and a bit more because writing fluff makes me feel awkward. I don't know about these kind of things! Yes, yes, I'm a terrible excuse for a female. So, yeah, the plot is becoming more plotty and defined and less like Edie's plan, sort of passing as something going on, but very grey and vague. Like Twishite. Only less professional.**

**Reviews give me inspiration- come on, aren't you happy to see me? *Does Nudge's bambi eyes***

**So, yeah. Oh, my other story is updated, too, so you can check that one out if you like! It actually has plot, and decent chapters. Please?**

**~Fridgey x**


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